Discovering NSA Code Names Via LinkedIn

Okian Warrior writes with this news as reported by TechDirt: "The Washington Post revealed some of the code names for various NSA surveillance programs, including NUCLEON, MARINA and MAINWAY. Chris Soghoian has pointed out that a quick LinkedIn search for profiles with codenames like MARINA and NUCLEON happens to turn up profiles like this one which appear to reveal more codenames: 'Skilled in the use of several Intelligence tools and resources: ANCHORY, AMHS, NUCLEON, TRAFFICTHIEF, ARCMAP, SIGNAV, COASTLINE, DISHFIRE, FASTSCOPE, OCTAVE/CONTRAOCTAVE, PINWALE, UTT, WEBCANDID, MICHIGAN, PLUS, ASSOCIATION, MAINWAY, FASCIA, OCTSKYWARD, INTELINK, METRICS, BANYAN, MARINA.' TRAFFICTHIEF, eh? WEBCANDID? Hmm... Apparently, NSA employees don't realize that information they post online can be revealed."

Simple explanation

[Sparticus789]

Project code names are not classified, ever. Every project has a unclassified code name like any of the above which can be used for things like budgeting and frankly, resumes. A guy I know tried to get "FLUFFY BUNNY" approved as a code name, but they denied it. The easy way to tell, is that unclassified code names are single words chosen by a random computer word generator, and the classified code names are always 2 words, chosen again by a random computer word generator.

While this may be interesting, the reality of the Fort Meade area is that any job in intelligence, analysis, or IT with a location of Fort Meade or Annapolis Junction, MD is a NSA job. Some of them even post on Craigslist [craigslist.org] and one time, I had a Facebook add pop up that said "Want an NSA Clearance?" (not a typo, the company messed up their grammar).

Re:Simple explanation

[TheNinjaroach]

Want an NSA Clearance?

That grammar is not incorrect. Phonetically, the "N" begins with a vowel sound so "an NSA" is correct.

arcmap

[hackula]

Arcmap is the unofficial name for ESRI's flagship product ArcGIS Desktop.

Re:Simple explanation

[heypete]

I had a Facebook add pop up that said "Want an NSA Clearance?" (not a typo, the company messed up their grammar).

According to Purdue [purdue.edu], words that start with consonants may be preceded with "an" if they have a "vowel sounds". They give the example of "an MSDS" and "an SPCC". Similarly, words that start with vowels but have consonant sounds use "a" [purdue.edu].

I'm no expert in grammar, but it seems possible that "an NSA clearance" may be correct.

Any experts want to chime in?

Re:Simple explanation

[BForrester]

You're mostly right.
  - "Want a NSA clearance?" is incorrect.
  - "Want an NSA clearance?" is better.
  - "Want NSA clearance?" would be better still. There's no need for an article at all.

Re:Sounds like FOIA time

[alphatel]

To me this sounds like it is time to file a bunch of freedom of information act requests. The bigger question is what if anything will the media do with this newf ound info.

I requested more info for you, here is some you should enjoy
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/716069/boozallenhamiltonnsa.pdf [documentcloud.org]

Apparently Booz employees forgot that their cloud documents are.... well, public

Re:Simple explanation

[Mashdar]

In English, a/an are selected phonetically and are otherwise identical. "An" does not imply plurality (in fact it implies singularity).

Substituting "NSA" for "security" in your examples does make a difference, because "NSA" begins with a phonetic vowel sound, whereas "security" begins with a phonetic consonant.

Articles in English are selected phonetically, not typographically, and thus "an NSA" is correct, whereas "a NSA" is not. This can be confusing to look at, but who ever said English was easy?

Re:A fleeting moment of rich irony.

[ganjadude]

Pretty much. Once we have the names of a program. we can submit FOIA requests on them. thats one of the catch 22s with FOIA. you have to know what you are looking for, you cant just say "I want all the info on the NSA spying on americans" you need to say" I want all information on codenameA codenameB codenameC." will they give it? doubtful but its a start.

Re:Simple explanation

[chihowa]

You choose the appropriate article based on how the acronym is pronounced. NSA is pronounced "en es ay", so "an" precedes the "en". NASA is pronounced "na sa", so "a" would precede the "na".

If you pronounced NASA as "en ay es ay", you would use an "an" before it. Try actually saying "a N". It's awkward to say, which is why we say "an N".